The Oil Zombies

"The oil zombies are coming, the oil zombies are coming!"

Warning! The zombie apocalypse is nigh.

Look out British Columbia, the oil zombies are stumbling their way west with outstretched festering arms and mumbling, "We need oil, pipelines, LNG terminals, coal exports, nuclear, rail transport of hazardous materials and fracking."

While the living are investing in planet-saving technologies like solar, wind, biogas, tidal and other sustainable methods, the undead are flogging their dying energy source - fossil fuels.

"Never mind brains and tissue, we need pipelines," the piles of pus implore. "Lots of pipelines."

The only way to dispose of the oily undead is to expose them to logic and reality. No environment, no economy.

If we fail to evolve our way out of the impending fossil fuelled apocalypse, there will soon be zombie ghost tankers laden with zombie oil leaking along our fragile coastline.

Say NO to the oil zombies.

Fracking Facts in BC

Fracking poisons massive amounts of water with a unknown toxic soup.
But you can always buy 'clean' (and expensive) water at the mall.

• Natural gas is not and never has been a clean fuel. 

• The government of British Columbia wants to export up to four trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year from BC. 

• Natural gas has advantages over coal and diesel fuel. When combusted natural gas has fewer greenhouse gas emissions. But when the source is considered - shale rock - a broader view is required.

• Hydraulic fracturing or fracking operations free gas trapped in rock. This uses tremendous amounts of water, sand and toxic chemicals to create cracks or fractures in the rock that allow the trapped gas to be released.

• In northeast BC today, fracking operations at just one one shale gas pad with a dozen wells on it will toxify the equivalent of all the water in Saanich’s Elk and Beaver lakes, where Canada’s Olympic rowing teams train. 

• The greenhouse gas emissions associated with natural gas produced from such water-intensive operations are poorly understood. Some models estimate that the emissions associated with shale gas production are only slightly higher than those for conventional gas, while others place them on par with coal.

• The US Environmental Protection Agency, among others, underestimate actual emissions by as much as half.

• Gas production in BC’s remote Horn River Basin near Fort Nelson produces unusually high amounts of CO2, which must be stripped away before the gas can be piped and used. Currently, the stripped CO2 is simply vented to the atmosphere rather than captured and stored.

• Neither government nor industry appears keen to do field studies required to determine the impacts of this extraction method.

• Recently, members of the Fort Nelson First Nation raised objections to a potentially massive giveaway of water rights in their traditional territory to pave the way for accelerated shale gas production. 

• Responsible governments would acknowledge the obvious: We can’t in good conscience proceed with fracking in the absence of basic information - information that is obtainable given the will, and which they should be obliged to publish.

• The BC government is proposing a quintupling of natural gas production in BC.

source

Committing Critical Thinking

It is hard to believe in global capitalism once you start
critically thinking about it

North America, in my experience as both a student and a teacher, has always been proudly anti-intellectual. Why? Because decision makers have always known that an uneducated, uninformed population is easier to exploit and manipulate.

The blissfully unaware are easier to lead to their mundane jobs, and then to the mall after work. Such a population won't notice the degradation of the environment or personal freedoms.

I used to look south across the border and cringe at the anti-intellectualism of the Bush years because it went way beyond the usual dumbing us down routine. Now my own country has been invaded by a leadership that preaches the uselessness of critical thinking of any kind, and then formulates new laws to back up the sermon.

In response to the horrific Boston bombings, Canada's Prime Minister basically responded by telling us now was not the time to think (or "commit sociology" as he inanely put it), but to look around for the biggest stick we can find and start bashing suspicious looking foreigners.

Is there ever a time to not think? Isn't that what has gotten us into the messes we currently face on a global scale? So much for being proactive and practicing evidence-based prevention to ease and perhaps solve our pressing problems.

I found the following open letter at straight.com (a local online news source) that reflects my frustration, embarrassment, and shame in the great leaps backwards that our current anti-intellectual government has been taking us on every front.

Open letter: Thou shalt not commit sociology (or critical thinking of any kind)

by Staff on Apr 29, 2013 at 4:36 pm

The anti-intellectualism of Stephen Harper demands a reply. In face of global capitalism’s mounting crisis, critical interrogation of social phenomena, causes and consequences is urgently needed. We invite Canadians to ‘commit sociology’ and indeed ‘history’, ‘literary criticism’, ‘philosophy’, ‘political science’, ‘anthropology’, ‘critical legal studies,’ ‘political economy’, and ‘feminist studies’. 

The latest attack on independent research and scholarship is part of the current Conservative government’s attempt to keep Canadians in the dark. Since at least the 1960s and 1970s, evidence-based research in the humanities and social sciences has illuminated pervasive injustice and inequality.  In Canada, long-standing colonialism in dealing with the First Nations, the ‘patriarchal dividend’ in employment, politics, education, and social security, the gulf between rich and poor, the scapegoating of racialized immigrants and foreign workers, the criminalization of the poor, and the hollowing out of the middle class have been confirmed.  To a significant degree, anti-racist, feminist, and other critical scholars have shaped policy and improved outcomes for the less powerful. Their scholarship has also encouraged social movements such as Idle No More and Occupy, which reject the market capitalism embraced by the right as the solution to global immiseration. 

Harper’s administration and its allies have mounted a general attack on critical research, be it in the humanities, the social sciences or the sciences. They want data-based interpretations of Canada that document elite, corporate, European, and male abuse to disappear. Their assault on the humanities and social sciences, like that on the sciences, began with censorship. Statistics Canada, archives, libraries, and parks and historic sites, not to mention programs of scientific research, have been hobbled.
National history is one special target of conservative efforts to cleanse Canada of proof of inequality and injustice. Ottawa’s 2011 “Discover Canada” guide to the citizenship test and 2012 immigrant guide, “Welcome to Canada,” foster a deliberately naïve patriotism.  Political decisions to turn the Canadian Museum of Civilization into one of History, to embrace reactionary commemorative practices, to militarize patriotic mythology, and to attack Library and Archives Canada, the principal depository of our history, aim to dumb down the electorate. 

The contest for hearts and minds goes far beyond anti-intellectualism. Current government practices form part of a broader process of public ‘de-gendering’ that aims at the systematic elimination of gender, racial, and class justice from public policy. That result threatens hard-fought struggles by Canadians of every description and scholarly investigation of every variety. 

In face of a world that is so self-evidently badly served by reactionary forces, we rededicate ourselves to committing critical scholarship.  We also support scientists who document the precarious state of the environment.  Like them we embrace the ‘sin’ of employing data in aid of a proactive public policy that fosters a sustainable and equitable planet.  We urge all Canadians to do the same.

The open letter was signed by 80 concerned critical thinkers from universities across the country.

When the leader of any country tells the population "now is not the time for thinking" it means they are hiding something and now is the time for thinking. It means that critical analysis and sanity is under threat.

It means that they know there are more of us, and that in spite of their attempts at obfuscation and befuddlement, we are educating ourselves. We are becoming aware of what is going on, and we don't like it.

With awareness comes the knowledge that we can, and will, stop the things that assault human and environmental rights. Like the fanatical right wing governments that are trying to take over the world and perpetuate their self-serving, harmful ways.

I hope Canadians will lend their critical thinking skills to our current management's manipulations, and help oust them all at the next election... if not sooner.

Denialists Say, "Don't Worry - Everything Is Fine"

Just because you deny something, doesn't mean it isn't happening

The Canadian government recently withdrew from the United Nations Convention to Combat Drought and Desertification (UNCCD), the only country in the world to do so. My homeland, and its international reputation, is being destroyed by a denialist political organization.

Does that sound too alarmist? I don't think so.

Denialists choose to ignore evidence as a way to avoid uncomfortable truths. Science and first-person accounts are dismissed in favour of beliefs that allow the pillage and plunder of the ecosphere to continue. All for the benefit of the few, and to the detriment of the many.

Speaking of denialists, in a recent comment here, reader TJ Smith called my blog out as environmental alarmism. I am sure Steven Harper and his Anti-Environment Minister Peter Kent feel the same way when they drop by Not Buying Anything.

Here is TJ Smith's comment:

"Great for everyone who has a small home. More power to ya. I get tired of subliminal messages that America and it's hard earned wealth is wicked and we should all be emulating third world nations, as if they purposely choose a shack or lean-to for habitation.  

In a country where we produce more goods worldwide, are the most productive, the most generous, the most intelligent, the most pro-active in technology and research, has the best health-care (until Obama kicks in), you think we'd be free to build a home any size we want without facing ridicule from liberal socialist.  

The population only fills 3% of the earth, so overpopulation is really not the issue. If Texas had the same population percentage as England based on land size, there would over 100 million people in the Lone Star State. Last I heard England isn't running out of room.  

If people want a big home, that's their freedom in America. It is the American dream. My home size is actually under the national average for home size, but I'm certainly not going to berate or shame rich folks for doing so with some passive aggressive call to "save the earth". Trees are a renewable resource. We aren't going to run out.  

But guess what all you tree huggers, plastic is filling up the dump grounds and now Grocery stores are calling for paper bags! How ironic is that? The ones who thought they had the "new world" solution ended up screwing up what was the most efficient way to conserve. 

The earth is self sustaining and will support twice the population it now serves. In the next 20 years you will see this proven."

I guess me and thousands of other concerned citizens could be wrong about the direction our planet is going, and perhaps the Earth can support billions of high-consumption individuals driving big cars and living in big houses.

Given the evidence however, I don't think that I am being alarmist in warning that 3-planet lifestyles are not sustainable, and that a move toward smaller footprint living is required to turn things around.

Mxmlists Fight Back

We are entering an era
defined by natural limits

For a variety of good reasons, simple and minimalist living is becoming more mainstream. Because of this, simple living and minimalist blogs are becoming more popular. I am optimistic that this trend will continue, and that the message of such blogs will help us transform our economy, our selves, and the way we live our lives.

But some people don't want this inevitable transformation to occur.

Because of the impending shift to gentler (read "less profitable for big business") ways of living, mainstream political 'leaders' and their buddies, the private sector 'wealth generators', are getting nervous. I know this as a fact since my own federal government has recently decided that I am a threat to our country's national security.

Not only that, but environmentalists like me have also been added to the growing list of terrorist threats.  Wow - they really are scared. What's next - fighting back with maximalist, conspicuous consumption blogs brought to you by the United Corporations and the governments that work for them?

Sometimes I wonder why I have never seen any complex living blogs, but I think we all know. In North America, blogging about the work hard/consume hard lifestyle would be like a fish blogging about water.

But for future reference, I thought up some possible names for pro-consumer/work/fast life bloggers to consider.

• Mxmlist -  the joys of maxing out on possessions and having lots of everything
• Buying Everything - more work, more stuff, less freedom 
• Consumer Habits - how to acquire and feed the consumer habit for life
• Miss Maximalist - living a semi-beautiful life with more stuff
• Lavish Dad - enjoy all the toys and never mind the kid's education or your early retirement
• Being Luxurious - have fabulous stuff regardless of the consequences
• Fast Times - helping you shorten your life by increasing the pace to hyper speed

As the environmentally degrading consumer era comes to a close, those with vested interests in the status quo will flex their ample moneyed muscles.  Rather than look to natural limits to explain the end of profitable conspicuous consumption, they will be looking for party-pooping activists to blame for its demise. 

That is why the Canadian government now lists in their Counter-terrorism Strategy, under "Domestic Issue-Based Extremism", terrible terrorist tactics like engaging in environmentalism and anti-capitalism activities.  

We are entering the age of limits. There will be no Mxmlist Blog in the future, nor will there be the conspicuous consumption like there is now.

There will also not be massive profits for the exploiters, and no amount of green backlash is going to change that.

Self-Reliance

Well designed houses can make their residents self-reliant in energy production, 4D Home / Massachusetts

Sometimes the thought of changing the world seems like too much. Just taking care of ourselves is a full time job.

Often what works against both self change and world change are dependence and self-doubt. Both are magnified when we settle into overly comfortable physical and mental landscapes that lull us into settling for the status quo.

Author Pandora Poikilos writes, “We are so accustomed to the comforts of "I cannot", "I do not want to" and "it is too difficult" that we forget to realize when we stop doing things for ourselves and expect others to dance around us, we are not achieving greatness. We have made ourselves weak.” 

A healthy dose of self-reliance is beneficial because it is empowering to be able to take care of ourselves. It makes us strong.

In recent decades we have increasingly become dependent on corporations to provide almost everything. Instead of taking care of ourselves, like previous generations, we work at jobs that are often mundane or worse, to make money, so we can exchange it for the things we need and want.  

We buy fast, prepared, and restaurant food so we don't have to cook. We buy child care so we don't have to stay home with the kids. We buy music so we don't have to make it ourselves. We buy food from the other side of the planet so we don't have to grow it. We make ourselves weak.

Things like growing/preparing food, and raising children are not things that get in the way of life - they ARE life. What kinds of pleasurable experiences are we foregoing by choosing to work so we can pay other people to be responsible for the parts of our lives for which we no longer have time?

How will we know the joys of gardening and cooking if we are paying Monsanto and McDonalds to do it on our behalf? When will we discover that we can make our own energy if we are dependent on large utility companies and the grid? How can we raise our kids if we don't spend time with them?

It may be that your neighbours will help out in a crunch, but you can never trust that you will be saved by anyone. You will certainly never be saved by a corporation.

According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, "nothing can bring you peace but yourself." No government, or corporate entity is going to save us - we are  going to have to do it ourselves, individually, and cooperatively. We can make ourselves strong through healthy self-reliance, then we can change the world.


See more energy self-reliant solar homes here.

The Power Of 1 Billion Cooperative Members

When I tell people that Linda and I lived in a housing cooperative for 10 years it usually elicits the same response - "What is a cooperative?" I am always patient and understanding because before we became members of Sundance Housing Cooperative, I didn't know much about this method of organizing and meeting needs either.

According to the International Cooperative Alliance, a cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise." That is a nice, if not somewhat academic way of putting it.

The way I describe it to the uninitiated is, "a cooperative venture is a group of regular folks getting together to share and meet needs without the interventions of a parasitic, private, for-profit system of middlemen and other leaches that funnel money to themselves and a small elite at the expense of everyone else and the environment."

In a report issued to commemorate the beginning of the 2012 UN International Year of Cooperatives, it was noted that globally there are 3 times as many members of cooperatives as there are corporate shareholders. It highlights a basic, yet oft-ignored/covered up, aspect of humanity - our nature is to want to help each other, and share in the bounty of our combined efforts.

There are many different types of cooperatives with the most common being agricultural. However, you may be more familiar with other shared ventures such as: food, housing, retail, and car coops, as well as credit unions.

With the lack of mainstream media attention, who would know how popular coops really are? I guess that was the idea behind the UN designating 2012 as the year to get the message out to the masses. That message is: cooperatives work... for you.

It is not surprising that we don't know more about cooperatives. They are based on values we learn in kindergarten, but leave behind as we grow up and discover that they are not compatible in the 'real world' of business.

"Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others." - from the ICA

I can imagine why our political and business 'leaders' wouldn't want people to give in to their natural instincts to share, take care of each other, and form cooperative ventures. Most everything that is done by government and private enterprise could conceivably be done better as a cooperative.

Are the values that cooperatives are based on even compatible with the way business and governments conduct themselves theses days? What if all our institutions were based, really based, on these same values?

We should not underestimate the power of 1 billion cooperative members. Our innate desires for sharing, caring, and helping, when expressed through organizations like coops, have the ability to change our world for the better.

That is definitely what living in the community of Sundance Housing Coop did for Linda and me. I can say without hesitation that we are improved individuals for having been members of this safe, supportive, and compassionate group of amazing, hard-working people.

Coop Facts

• Globally, India has the most coop members (240 million), followed by China (160 million), and the United States (120 million).
• In Europe, the countries of Ireland (70% of population), Finland (60%) and Austria (59%) have the most coop members.
• 21% of the population of the UK are members of coops.
• Housing coops, unlike the private real estate sector, are dedicated to providing safe and affordable housing.
• There are a quarter million people living in housing cooperatives in Canada. 
• Over one and a half million families in the U.S. call housing coops home. 
• Coop members own and control ventures that are dedicated to a strong local community, and  environmental sustainability.
• Coops operate without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.
• Members exercise control and actively participate in setting policies and making decisions.
• All members share equally in profits and benefits.
• Cooperatives promote education, training, and information exchange.
• Coops make life better for 1/7th of the world's population.

Opting Out Increasingly Difficult/Illegal

Opt out now - while it's still legal!

During a time when the authorities say "go shopping", then praise you as 'patriotic' when you do, what happens if you don't comply? What happens if you wish to opt out of the whole materialistic rat race, and live a minimal, simple, self-reliant life?

Increasingly what happens are laws that prevent you from choosing that potentially desirable opt out route.

For example, there are many places with laws that prevent you from collecting rainwater. Or growing anything but useless energy-intensive, chemical-dependent grass within sight of your neighbours. Or laws that prevent you from sleeping in a car or RV on city streets, or from building a tiny house, or remaining off the grid.

Anti-opting out legislation is being passed by centralized governments at all levels in order to protect their turf and cement our dependence on a crumbling, complex system that they and their corporate friends profit from.

If we are 'allowed' to opt out of this system, and assert our independence through increased simplicity and self-reliance, we are less subject to their control. Worse for them, we cease to become their profit-providers.

That is why citizens growing gardens could become potential targets. A Geographical Information System has been used to put information on every garden in England in a data base. Rumours of a backyard garden tax are not limited to England - parts of the US are also looking at home gardens as being potential sources of much-needed revenue.

A side benefit for the government's corporate buddies is that the garden tax would also discourage people from eating non-corporate food.

Farmers have already been targeted, with devastating effects on both humans and biodiversity. In order to increase dependency and corporate profits, legislation has been passed to make seed saving, a tradition thousands of years old, illegal.

In India, simple farmers are forced into the complex world of patented, corporate seed stock, energy-intensive industrial agriculture, debt, bankruptcy, and eventual suicide.

Legislation and nuisance bylaws everywhere are being used to keep the 99% dependent on centralized governments and corporations that offer no solutions, only increased resistance to our choosing to opt out of their system.

There is some urgency in developing a sustainable system to replace the one that is currently designed to make the 1% wealth at the expense of the people and the environment.

Opt out now, while you still can. Choose to live simply and sustainably, and free. Choose to increase local resilience, grow your own food, and save your own seeds. Choose to be one of the architects of a new system, the people's system.

While it is still somewhat legal.